Sociology

Sociology: CRIME AND DEVIANCE

  • Delinquent Boys: the Culture of the Gang - Albert Cohen

    Delinquent Boys: the Culture of the Gang - Albert Cohen
    Working class boys who are frustrated as they fail to gain status for success at school instead seek to gain status with their peers through acts of daring such as vandalism.
  • Lower Class Culture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency - Walter Miller

    Lower Class Culture as a Generating Milieu of Gang Delinquency - Walter Miller
    Delinquent behaviour is not the result of a distinctive subculture with alternative values. Instead it is an expression of the working class values that easily lead to crime. These include toughness, fatalism, desire for autonomy and excitement.
  • Delinquency and Opportunity - Cloward and Ohlin

    Delinquency and Opportunity - Cloward and Ohlin
    People unable to achieve success legitimately may join a criminal, conflict or retreatist subculture, depending on their neighbourhood and own personality.
  • Delinquency and Drift - David Matza

    Delinquency and Drift - David Matza
    Young people wish to escape from the constraints of adults and may be easily led into trouble by their peers. They are rarely intent on a deviant career and become law abiding citizens again when adult responsibilities loom.
  • Adolescent Boys in East London - Peter Willmott

    Adolescent Boys in East London - Peter Willmott
    Adolescent males in working class areas often get into trouble because they are hanging about in the streets looking for fun. This sometimes leads to aw breaking that is highly visible so results in arrests. There is no evidence of subcultural values, simply a desire to relieve boredom
  • The Drug Takers - Jock Young

    The Drug Takers - Jock Young
    Participant observation showed that casual marijuana smokers of Notting Hill formed distinctive subculture of hard drugs when police activity put them under pressure.
  • Folk Devils and Moral Panics - Stanley Cohen

    Folk Devils and Moral Panics - Stanley Cohen
    Left wing study of deviancy amplification. Seaside fights between Mods and Rockers were exaggerated by a press with little other news. This encouraged troublemakers to join in and increased hostility between the groups.
  • Learning to Labour - Paul Willis

    Learning to Labour - Paul Willis
    Marxist study of working class lads who expected to follow their fathers into manual occupations. They saw no point in academic qualifications and formed an anti-school subculture.
  • What is to be Done About law and Order? - Lea and Young

    What is to be Done About law and Order? - Lea and Young
    Left Realists identified three causes of crime as subculture, marginalisation and relative deprivation.